I play the right cards, so why do I keep losing? ~ A Player's Story

**Mastro** · 03-11-2008, 10:16 AM

I play the right cards, so why do I keep losing?
By John Bush

After a long frustrating night of losing with AKs to players who will call your pre-flop raise because they "just had a feeling" about there 58 off-suit, you may be sitting in bed just trying to figure out where it all went wrong. I know I have done it many times myself. If you are anything like me, you may even lose some sleep because you keep running two or three hands through in your mind. You're so angry that he drew to his 2 outer and caught it on the river! After all, you played the right hand, made the correct bets, but still lost.

Well, I'm here to tell you that this is how I used to think. I used to think that I deserved to win because I didn't play bad hands, but my opponents did. I believed that in the long run all I had to do was play good hands and I would be a winner. However, there is so much more to poker than this. Anyone who has a regular game knows at-least one or two people who get angry every night they lose because they just KNOW that they are better than there opponents. And if you don't, chances are you're the one. You will run into this player very often, and in most cases, they are very easy to read, and very easy to aggravate.

If you fear your mindset may be this way, as I once did, my advice would be to start focusing on all of your own mistakes, rather than the mistakes of your opponents. No matter how good you are, everyone is prone to an obvious bad play. Most of the more experienced but still average players will probably even know that it is a bad play, but will do it anyways. Some of the more common excuses include things like "I was already pot committed" or "I thought he had me beat, but it was just too good to lie down." I have never met a player who wasn't prone to these misconceptions now and then. I will give you an example.

I was sitting at my normal no-limit table and, after about two hours of poor cards, I look down to see two pretty black kings. Correction, these kings were gorgeous! And what's this, a pre-flop raise ahead of me?! I can barely hold my excitement. I weigh my options and decide to mix my play up and just call. I figure kings are too good to re-raise with here. After I call, there is a re-raise directly behind me. This is about the time that fireworks start flashing over the table with big explosions that keep chanting "He has aces!" I can't believe it, the first hand I see and this clown thinks he has me beat. Well, I decide I have to find out for sure, so after the first raiser folds, I re-re raise a substantial amount (about a fourth of my stack, which was average sized at the time). And what happens? He comes BACK over the top. I couldn't be more furious. The one hand I get kings, this guy gets aces. So you know the end of the story right? I lay it down and am furious all night wondering if he actually had me beat? NO!

Actually, that is what I should have done. I call his raise and now have already three fourths of my chips committed pre-flop. Out comes the flop: x , King, Ace.Haha, Right about now I am ready to flip the table! Now, not only were my kings not good pre-flop, but now I have a worthless set of them. He bets the rest of my chips, and I call in frustration..He didn't even have to turn over his cards.

So what is the moral of the story? I wish I knew myself. The stubborn part of my brain says the moral is hope someone doesn't have aces when you have kings. But, this is a losing player's mentality. Another part thinks something like, if I just happen to get kings and someone else gets aces, congratulations, you will win a nice pot off of me. When I come to the conclusion that I should have cut my losses early, a third part keeps screaming at me saying, "So, you don't even play kings anymore huh? Well what the heck cards do you play, folding aces too these days?"

I guess the real moral of the story would be that I knew what cards to play, I played them, and I played them very very badly. Knowing what cards to play seems very small in comparison to knowing HOW to play the cards in this instance, and many others. I definitely shouldn't have played the hand that far. I should have cut my losses.

But, to quote a movie I once saw,..... "You should have played those kings Mike."

**WinJStar** · 03-12-2008, 01:00 AM

Quick story.....My first event of the WSOP ever...I had nightmares I would be busted on the first hand. So, there i am ..the announcer says, "Cards are in the air". I look at my hand and I have pocket K's. I raise preflop 3 times the bb, I get a re-raise. I smooth call. Flop is all blanks and no ace. I bet the pot. Meanwhile I am thinking I am good, but then she comes over the top all in on the first friggin hand! I go to the tank for at least ten minutes. I'm sure the other players are wondering what is wrong with me. Finally I muck and turn over my Ks sort of like justification for my dramatic first hand pause. The lady who came over the top on me thankfully showed aces and I had several players say it was an amazing laydown. In the meantime I text Bluffman and skidoc from my lap in the chair until the tourny director told me my hands would be dead if I didn't stop. It makes for a great flashback. I laid down pocket Ks the first hand of my first event of the WSOP.

^^^Anyway...aside from that particular scenario. I would NEVER lay down pocket Ks preflop like the guy in the article said he should have done and once he flopped the set..... I dunno. Well, never is a strong word. If Sippowitz is in front of me and re-raises then I may lay down.

Would you lay down Ks preflop?

**voodoo1215** · 03-12-2008, 03:28 AM

Hmm

**mrkromer** · 03-12-2008, 05:53 AM

I feel like you can't put someone on AA, ever. If it happens, it happens. But for the stakes most of us play at, I would say don't lay down KK preflop. The mental anguish isn't worth it.

**MJ888** · 03-12-2008, 06:15 AM

I am no expert....

But laying down KK is really hard to do. I don't think I can do it. And I know I won't be able to do it after I flop a set. And to me, if I flopped a set of K's and lost to a set of aces then its bad luck.

**MJ888** · 03-12-2008, 06:17 AM

Hey Jen, let me ask you this.....what if that woman showerd you QQ or JJ? How would you feel then?

**Patsfan55** · 03-12-2008, 06:22 AM

I gotta agree it turned out right but I dont think I could do it.

**kmanharris** · 03-12-2008, 08:51 AM

i think preflop its tough to lay down kings but in that situation i think i could have. He reraised, then you rereraised and he came over the top again. You cant think he is doing that with anything other than Kings or Aces

**kmanharris** · 03-12-2008, 08:52 AM

But once you hit a set on the flop your pretty much putting all your chips in

**WinJStar** · 03-12-2008, 01:24 PM

Originally Posted by MJ888

Hey Jen, let me ask you this.....what if that woman showerd you QQ or JJ? How would you feel then?

Like a fucking idiot that I just didn't double up the first hand of the WSOP.

I'd be tilting which is hard to get me to do and it would have fuct up my entire game. Btw..I lasted 10.5 hours and went out 30 before the bubble to someone who wound up at the final table. She introduced me to her mom after and ran up giving me a hug...."Mom, this girl's chips put me in the lead. Thank you so much!"